Sunday, July 01, 2012

India, not Pakistan, victim of terror

Counter-Terror Cooperation

RUSTAM
 

JAMMU, June 27: Pakistan High Commission on Tuesday offered “counter-terrorism cooperation” to India in the backdrop of the arrest of Abdu Jundal, a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist and key handler of attackers who struck Mumbai on 26/11 (2008) and shot dead hundreds of innocent civilians, including Indians, Americans and Israelis. Jundal, alias Zaibuddin Ansari, was arrested by Delhi Police at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, after he was deported by Saudi Arabia on June 21. Ironically, Pakistan High Commission shamelessly maintained that “Pakistan has been at the forefront in the campaign against terror” and said “terrorism is a common concern”. “As agreed at the highest level between Pakistan and India, terrorism is a common concern and counter-terrorism cooperation is in the mutual interest of both countries. Pakistan renews its offer of cooperation in the domain,” the High Commission said in a statement.
 

The claim of Pakistan that it, like India, is also a victim of terrorism and that it is at the forefront in the campaign against terror is as amusing as it is ridiculous. Even more questionable and ridiculous is the offer of Pakistan that it is prepared for counter-terrorism cooperation. Islamabad has been consistently saying since the Havana talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan, like India, is also a victim of terrorism. Paradoxically, Manmohan Singh had walked into the Pakistan trap and endorsed the canny General’s view, instead of calling the bluff of General Pervez Musharraf who masterminded the intrusion in Kargil in 1999. It was this diplomatic hara-kiri on the part of our Prime Minister that had shocked the entire Indian nation.
Pakistan has been saying that it has witnessed more terror attacks and lost more lives, as compared to India. It has been saying day in and day out that it has already lost 40,000 lives. The terror attacks also left over 60,000 people injured, Pakistan has also been saying on a daily basis, adding that terrorists are striking on a daily basis, thus blooding and convulsing its social scene.
 

No one will disagree with Pakistan. It is a fact that Pakistan has been witnessing terror-related incidents for quite sometime now. But it is also a fact that all these terrorists were trained, funded and indoctrinated by the Pakistani Army and the dreaded Pakistani spy agency, Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI). Pakistan created Taliban. Pakistan has been giving all possible support to such terror outfits as LeT. In fact, outfits like LeT and Pakistan Taliban are the brainchildren of Pakistani Army and ISI, with the Pakistani political establishment at their back and call. They are part of the state policy in one sense. It is Pakistan which has permitted anti-India forces to set up on the Pakistani soil as well as in the occupied areas more than 40 terror producing factories. According to one estimate, there are at least 42 terror producing factories in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir, all very active and producing jehadis with a view to dismembering India and establishing control over the restive and Taliban and al-Qaida-infested Afghanistan. It is Pakistan which has allowed terrorists like Syed Salah-ud-Din to use the Pakistani territory and POJK for exporting terror to India.
 

The fact of the matter is that Pakistan has been using terror as a weapon to wreck India and capture the Indian Jammu and Kashmir since the late 1980s and that Pakistan has been bleeding India ever since then. It is responsible for all the terror attacks that India witnessed, including the 2001 Parliament terror attack and the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. It is Pakistan for the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley or disturbing the state’s socio-religious and political equilibrium. Not only this, the involvement of state actors in Pakistan in several terror attacks which took place across the world, including United States, United Kingdom and Afghanistan, is also too well-known. Hence, the perpetrator of terror attacks on India cannot say that terrorism is a common concern. Pakistan is a failed and rogue state and it is a fact appreciated universally. India would do well to not walk into the Pakistani trap and behave like genuine states like United States, China, Israel, to mention only a few, behave. Even otherwise, India has been left with no other choice but to take on Pakistan after what it did today to outrage the Indian nation. Yesterday, Pakistan announced that President Asif Ali Zardari had commuted the death sentence of Sarbjit Singh and that he would be released soon. Today, Pakistan under the ISI and extremists’ pressure took a complete U-turn and said Sarbjit will not be released. Sarbjit has been languishing in Pakistani jail since 1989 despite the fact that his was case of mistaken identity.

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